Joe Flacco is 40 years old. His beard is graying. He lives in a top-five Philadelphia suburb in New Jersey and has five kids. He is still just eight years removed from being named the most attractive player in the NFL, a prize that has to be just as good as his Super Bowl MVP trophy from 2012. He has an honorary doctorate from the University of Delaware. He has made millions, and his career has already had a satisfying second act thanks to his Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2023. He could just retire to enjoy the many gables on his over-designed McMansion and no one would second-guess the decision.
But no. Joe Flacco is an artist, and so he must create. While others work in paint or music, Flacco works in efficient but mostly unexciting quarterbacking. There’s a reason Flacco is set to play in his 200th NFL game next Sunday. By the numbers, he is having the worst season of his career so far, on a Cleveland Browns team that is going nowhere in particular. He went 21-for-36 for 142 yards and a pick on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers; that's less than 4 yards per attempt. But in crunch time, Flacco picked up his easel and his brush and went to work—directing the 29th game-winning drive of his 18-year career, which capped off an improbable 13-10 win over Green Bay.
The mighty Packers, leading the league in DVOA and getting Super Bowl buzz after beating up on the Lions and Commanders to open the season, led the Browns 10-0 with under five minutes left in the game. A 3-0 start was in sight. But then Flacco got to work. He threw passes of 1, 13, negative-4, and 3 yards on a drive that cut the deficit to a touchdown. Then, after Grant Delpit picked off Jordan Love and returned it to the Green Bay 4, Flacco threw an incomplete pass that drew a pass interference penalty. After a Quinshon Judkins touchdown rush and Andre Szmyt extra point, the game was tied.
It did not seem like Flacco would get much of a chance to complete his masterpiece when the Packers lined up for a 43-yard field goal with 27 seconds left. But oh! Shelby Harris blocked the kick, and Greg Newsome II picked it up at the Browns' own 47. (There was a lot of this going around on Sunday.) That gave Flacco the chance to craft one more masterpiece.
And viewers were treated to classic Flacco. Here’s how the AP described it:
Cleveland took over and went 16 yards in five plays. Flacco had an 8-yard completion to David Njoku on third-and-2 to get the ball to the Packers 35. Flacco then spiked the ball, bringing Szmyt on with 2 seconds remaining.
This undersells it, as Flacco also had a three-yard completion and drew a neutral zone infraction on Micah Parsons. And lest you think that spike was not impressive, oh no. Let’s take a look:
That play ends with eight seconds left, and Flacco has the ball snapped just five seconds later. And he even has great form on the spike! He spikes it right back up to himself, then flips it to the referee like he’d done this a million times before, instead of just 29.
This was one of the best parts of Sunday’s slate of entertaining finishes. Joe Flacco had a chance to put his team in a position to win the game, and he did it by throwing an eight-yard pass and then firing one directly into the ground. Of course, Andre Szmyt hit the game-winning field goal on the final play. If he keeps doing things like this—boring, effective, masterful stuff—Flacco can keep playing until he’s 50.
